Genetic uniqueness of Chinese village pig populations inferred from microsatellite markers.

In this study, 19 microsatellite loci were genotyped for 10 Chinese village pig populations including 817 individuals to investigate their genetic characteristics. The allele frequencies, effective numbers of alleles (ne), average heterozygosity within populations (H), genetic differentiation between populations (Fst), and coefficient of gene differentiation (Gst) were calculated. The results showed that village populations had relatively large H and ne values, but with smaller average Gst, compared with indigenous purebred pig populations. The smaller average Gst (0.0386) suggested that the genetic difference between village populations was only 3.86%, and the other 96.14% was found within populations. Most of the pairwise Fst-values were significant (P < 0.05), demonstrating differentiation among populations. A neighbor-joining tree constructed from modified Cavalli-Sforza genetic distances divided Chinese village pig populations, Chinese indigenous pig breeds, and Euro-American pig breeds into 3 separate clusters. All of above genetic analyses showed that Chinese village pig populations are unique genetic resources, which could be used for future pig production.